Skip to content
Back to news

GW4 supports training initiatives across the doctoral community

The purpose of this award is to support new discipline-specific doctoral training events, identified and organised by and for doctoral students within the GW4 Alliance. The events also provide opportunities for PhD students to network across the GW4 universities.

The GW4 Doctoral Student Training Scheme forms part of the wider support and a host of benefits and opportunities GW4 provides our postgraduate research community. This scheme supports the development of initiatives that bring doctoral students together across disciplines and across GW4 institutions. As well as attending or delivering the activity itself, planning and running activities provides students with a great opportunity to develop transferable skills as part of their professional development.

The successful projects range from social science interview techniques, to interdisciplinary mindfulness and neuroscience. Some training activities are already open for registration.

The successful GW4 projects are:

Time Series Analysis for Researchers
This hands-on workshop will introduce the topic while demonstrating fundamental techniques that powers rigorous analyses for both quantitative and qualitative datasets in an accessible way, so that researchers can become familiar with the core concepts and key terminology. There will also be an opportunity for researchers to discuss their specific time-series analysis needs with the trainer.
Find out more.

Conducting creative interviewing in social sciences
This workshop on creative interviewing for early stage PhD and EdD social science students will look at the ‘creative turn’ in research methodology, with the specific aim of sharing methodological expertise, knowledge and experience.
Find out more.

Mind the Gaps: Interdisciplinary Mindfulness Research
A two-day training event involving presentations by experts in the field of mindfulness and mind-body practices, allowing space for developing an experiential practice on the topic, engagement with theoretical and analytic approaches of data, and plenary discussions emerging from the interdisciplinary element of the mindfulness field and the methodological issues that arise.

GW4 Early Career Neuroscientist Day
This is a one-day event for early career neuroscientists run by early career neuroscientists. The theme for this event will be neuroscience and the careers, techniques that this encompasses. Another key aspect of the day will focus on non-research-based topics such as science communication, alternative careers and public engagement.
Find out more.

Whatever you do next: your research impact is key!
This training activity is a collaborative and interactive workshop, bringing together PhD students in humanities and social science (HSS) disciplines as well as impact professionals and academics from the GW4 network. The learning objectives for HSS PhD students are increased understanding of research impact and its importance, identification of their research impact and potential beneficiaries and initial development of their pathway to impact plans.

Find out more.

Rhetoric as an analytical toolkit
The training activity will explore both the theoretical and practical challenges associated with the study of political rhetoric.

University of Bath
University of Bristol
Cardiff University
University of Exeter